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Sunday, 4 May 2014

The People vs. George Lucas: The Problem with Fandom

I completely missed writing something last year for May
the Fourth and so I’ve made sure to prepare something for this year. It was a
bit challenging to find what I should talk about but I settled on watching The People vs. George Lucas documentary
and it sparked enough thoughts and commentary to make up a whole post.

The movie was directed by Alexandre Philippe, a lifetime Star Wars fan (aren’t we all?). It
presents a discussion between the conflicting aspects of the franchise,
particularly the love/hate relationship many fans have with Star Wars to a degree, but particularly with
George Lucas. The movie is structure in such a way as to present a brief
history of Lucas’s career up to the release of the first Star Wars movie. It then used interviews with a wide variety of
people including writers, several people in the film industry, comedians,
journalists and fan-submitted videos from the movie’s website. These various
interviews were edited into what I thought was a poorly structured look at Star Wars, its fans, and the difficult
relationship with Lucas. There are some very interesting ideas that are brought
up in the movie but ultimately it doesn’t really go anywhere. In the end, the
movie’s message to its viewers is that Star
Wars is great, Lucas has deeply hurt us all and we feel pretty betrayed,
but we hope there will be more Star Wars
goodness in the future. What follows is my attempt to restructure some of the
ideas from the movie, add in my comments, and try not to upset too many of the
more sensitive (emotionally sensitive, not Force-sensitive) fans.

George Lucas – Duality of the businessman

One of the elements that start off the discussion from
the movie is the duality inherent in George Lucas. As one person explains, they
believe Lucas’s psyche is structure similarly to a Russian doll. On the onside
there is a Lucasfilm, the corporation. Inside of that is Corporate Lucas.
Inside of that is Lucas the Capable Filmmaker. And inside of that is a young, enthusiastic
Lucas Filmmaker. That’s not quite how I see it. I think it’s simpler than that,
but it does shed some light on how Lucas’s fans see him. He’s a complex and
contradictory figure.

The way I see it, Lucas is internally conflicted by two
aspects of his life. The first is his creative persona, the one that initially
allowed for the creation of Star Wars.
The second half is his business savvy persona, which also allowed for the
creative success of Star Wars. During
the early part of his career, Creative Lucas (that’s what I’m calling him now)
has to defend his creativity and artistic vision against company executives and
producers. These early battles were very difficult for him and I believe they’ve
affected his development as a filmmaker. The success of the original trilogy,
which I believe was made possible by the combination of Creative Lucas and
Business Lucas, freed him from ever having to battle it out with a producer
ever again and that’s what led to the fractured Lucas we all know now. Before,
when he had to fight with his producers, both parts that make up Lucas were
working together against an outside force. After Star Wars, the outside force was more or less absent and without a
common enemy both sides started to fight against themselves.

"Advance and destroy all laser disc copies of the theatrical release!"

Fame and success have changed how Lucas feels about
creating. He’s had serious issues with the lack of control he had in his early
career. He had to fight for it and when you have to fight for control, you need
to pick you battles. Having to struggle with producers and production company
executives meant that Lucas had to fight to implement the creative ideas he thought
had more potential. Since he’s escaped that type of creative environment, he’s
been on his own. He no longer has the outside filter he had before. Wanting to
have all the control has left him with too much control and many, many internal
conflicts over various creative decisions on the franchise.

Fandom – Imitating the Duality of the Creator

Is this was betrayal looks like?

Some of the biggest fans of Star Wars are also some of the meanest towards the creator of the
franchise, George Lucas. They can be huge assholes with him for rather small
and petty reasons. Fans of Star Wars
have been engaging in participatory culture for several years, if not decades
since the release of A New Hope. They
don’t simply consume Star Wars, they
contribute to the development of the franchise while also acting as disciples
who spread the word and share it with new fans and create new generations of
fans. This participatory culture has created group of fans who enjoy pocking
fun at the thing they love or re-enacting it for their enjoyment. There are
countless projects that can be found online where fans are simply having a good
time. Some fans are also using these projects to develop their own filmmaking
or special effects skills in the hopes of becoming filmmakers someday. I like this
portion of fandom. It has fun, creative, and positive aspects to it. Playing in
the Star Wars sandbox has acted as
their training wheels in a way. Lucas has influenced an entire generation of
creators. Watch any documentary on Star Wars
and you’ll have interviews with film industry professionals who started their
career in filmmaking because of StarWars.

However, there are other fans whose time engaging in
participatory culture has led them to develop a penchant for remixing the
beloved franchise. In essence, they’re remixing StarWars to suit their
preferences. It’s unclear why this practice originated but it’s as much a part
of StarWars fandom as dressing up as favourite characters when attending
conventions. It’s pretty clear that some of this remix attitude is the result
of Lucas’s crusade to shove his Special Edition version of StarWars down the
throats of unwilling fans. On its own that would be an unfortunate desire on
the part of Lucas but it’s even worse if you’re familiar with a bit of film
preservation history.

Early in his career, Lucas was a main proponent against
the colourization of black and white films. He would argue that colouring black
and white movies went against the creative visions of the people who originally
worked on the movie. It was disrespectful. He also presents arguments that
preserving films in their original appearance was a way to preserve cultural
history. He went further in stating that the reasons why he thought it was important
to preserve our culture history. You can easily find plenty of information on
this part of Lucas’s life online. It actually makes for a rather interesting
read.

Older George Lucas always looks sad. Even sadder
than young George Lucas. You can see the regret
in his eyes. Tugs at my heart strings, it does.

These earlier arguments made by Lucas seem to contradict
the release of StarWars:SpecialEdition in which
Lucasfilm did several revisions, changes, additions and tweaks to the theatrical
release version of the original trilogy. That in itself isn’t a necessarily a
bad thing. After all, it’s the creator tweaking his own work with the intent of
having the finished product more closely resemble his artistic vision. I’m ok
with that as long as the original work is still available. For the most part,
it’s not, and that’s what’s problematic for me. Lucas has been attempting, and
as far as I know continues to attempt, revisionist history. By refusing to
continue to produce and sell the theatrical version of StarWars, he’s not only
disrespecting everybody else who worked on the films, he’s being disrespectful
of our shared cultural history. The StarWars of 1997 isn’t the same StarWars
people saw back in 1977. Lucas isn’t only being hypocritical, he’s being
disrespectful to fans and the people who helped make the StarWars films.

The problem though is that certain fans continue to allow
Lucas to do as he wishes because they continue to support him throughout all of
the various releases, his new films, and basically anything else that has the StarWars
brand name on the product. Fans will buy it. There is a moment in The People vs. George Lucas were a fan
lists all of the different VHS and DVD versions of StarWars he’s bought
over the years. In essence, it was all of them. When discussing the release of The Phantom Menace, there is a scene in
which a journalist asks two fans “What are you going to do if the movie really
sucks?” To which one of them answered “I’ll go see it again.” That’s part of the
problem! Why go see a movie you don’t like? Why financially support the man who
is responsible for producing the movie you thought sucked? It’s a vicious cycle
in which fans complain about the changes being made but continue to pay to watch it
or own it. Nobody is forcing you to be a ridiculous, all-consuming fan. I have
some distance between my love of StarWars and how much money I spend on it
and that allows me to continue to love the franchise and not lose my mind or
get insanely angry at Lucas.

The remix culture allows for fans to continue enjoying
Star War by taking out or changing the parts they don’t like. Perhaps without realizing
it they continue to support a franchise that no longer reflects what they like.
They’re taking the good and taking out the bad in order to be able to enjoy the
good. I think it’s an unhealthy approach to entertainment consumerism because
it’s symptomatic of radical fanaticism. Do you really love StarWars if you’re
changing it to better suit what you think it should be? When you’re watching
the fan-edit of The Phantom Menace,
are you still watching The Phantom Menace?
I’m interested in seeing how fans will
react to the new trilogy being worked on by J. J. Abrams. I know that part of
me will enjoy some of it even though I’m also pretty convinced I won’t enjoy
parts of it. There are a few reasons for that but I won’t get into them hear
aside from mentioning that I’m worried about what Abrams will do with the franchise
simply because his first Star Trek
film is about the only film or TV series by him that I’ve enjoyed. The other
thing is that there appears to be as much importance played on looking back as
there is looking forward. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it can lead to
self-indulgence and lack of narrative progression. We’ll wait and see but
really, other fans’ reactions is something I’m looking forward to. The discussion
of the franchise’s future as well as the pervasive remix culture leads me to
another point of contention among fans, what exactly is the “true” Star Wars?

Is this awesomely ridiculous book
"true" Star Wars? Hells yes it is.

The “true” Star
Wars?

I’m curious as to why George Lucas is so adamant in
having his vision be the only “true” StarWars. By deciding not to release the
theatrical release on blu-ray, he’s clearly supporting one version of StarWars
above another. Maybe he wants to make his revised, Special Edition version the
only “true” version because he’s had to suffer through seeing his films be
interpreted in hundreds if not thousands of different ways. Sometimes this was
done reverently, other times in ways combining amateurish invention and
unfiltered adoration and other times filled with hatred and condescension. With
so many different versions of StarWars available to the masses, maybe he’s
worried his version, the only one he thinks really matters, is being lost in
the mix.

I have to admit I find it kind of sickening to watch
people argue, rather than have open and honest discussions, but argue and fight over silly things like
Han shooting first. Who gives a shit? Multiple versions of that same event
exist on official releases. That in itself is problematic but at the end of the
day, regardless of your opinion, all those versions exist. If you choose to
accept one version over another, that’s fine. I’d actually encourage it because
I would then ask you why you preferred one over the other and that could be the
start of a fun conversation about StarWars and who doesn’t like that? But
once the discussion evolves into which version of Han shooting Greedo is the “right”
one, you enter dangerous territory. That leads to remixing StarWars and it becomes
of battles of which version is right and which version is wrong.

You can also throw in the whole idea of canon into that discussion.
StarWars is a multi-media franchise. Comics, novels, video games, TV
series, etc. Many stories from different genres directly contradict things in
the movies and in other stories. The development of an Expanded Universe of
tie-in media before the release of the prequels trilogy inevitably led to
contradictions galore once the prequels were finally released. The same thing
is bound to happen with the release of Episode
VII and Disney has already published a press release on the matter. Which
stories are “true” StarWars and which ones aren’t? Which
stories count? I know that this is
opening the floodgates but really, there is an easy solution to all of these questions.
It all counts. It’s all one glorious mess of super-continuity.

No two fans can agree on what StarWars really is. So
why not embrace it all? Lucas and the
fans need to embrace it all. Why is it so difficult to be able to admit that
you like certain things and dislike others? Where does this need to erase the
things you don’t like come from? Is it in reaction to Lucas’s own hypocrisy? Do
fans who re-edit the films feel as thoughthey’re sticking it to Businessman Lucas? All of that doesn’t matter to me
because I love it all. I even love to hate the parts I don’t like (“Yippee”,
anyone?).

Love 'em or hate 'em, Ewoks are part of Star Wars. I choose to love 'em.

The idea of super-continuity isn’t mine. I’m borrowing it
from Grant Morrison’s take on Batman. While writing his multi-year Batman story, Morrison decided that all
of the published Batman stories have actually happened to the character. There
is a way to better understand and appreciate all StarWars stories in how
Morrison treated Batman. He attempted to reconcile large section of the
character’s past into one huge, ever-expanding history for Batman. In this idea
of super-continuity, if something was published with Batman in it, it “counted”.
It happened. The same idea can be applied to StarWars and essentially
all other entertainment franchises. You can choose not to read or watch any
stories in which Jar-Jar appears, that’s your call, but you cannot dismiss him
by pretending he never existed in the first place. He did and it’s up to you to
reconcile that.

I like to embrace it all, the good with the bad. By not
allowing myself to watch Episode I, I’ll
never have to deal with some of Jar-Jar’s worst moments. That’s true. But I’m
also missing out on tons of other cool ideas that are present in the movie. I
also miss out on Obi-Wan’s early days and that’s a shame because he’s one of my
favourite characters. I’m not trying to tell you Episode I is a misunderstood masterpiece because it’s not. It’s a visual
masterpiece; the entire prequels trilogy is a visual feast. Yes, Episode I (or maybe Episode II) is the worst StarWars
movie but it’s still has its moments. The most important thing to keep in mind
is that it’s not the worst thing to ever have happened to StarWars, it’s also not
the first thing that “ruined” the franchise. I’d like to offer up Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith as one of the worst
stories in the franchise. It’s certainly one of the worst comics. As for things
that happened before Episode I that
contributed to ruin StarWars for a certain category of fans, you
can kind of take your pick. It can be a pretty selective list. Some people will
posit that Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
was the first step in a dumber StarWars. Others will mention Star Wars Holiday Special. I for one love Return of the Jedi. Ewoks? Love the little bastards. You can hate
them and you can disagree with me but Ewoks are still StarWars. You can’t
change that and neither can I. What Lucas has forgotten is that he can’t change
that either and he has to stop trying.

Have fun with continuity. Embrace it. Hell, the first
obvious thing that comes to mind is a drinking game. Take a drink every time
something happens in Episode I that
you don’t like. I guarantee you’ll like the movie by the time the end credits
roll because you’ll be so inebriated.

Overall The People
vs. George Lucas was very frustrating to watch. It’s well put together and
some of the people in the movie actually had some very interesting things to
say but really, it’s just inconsistent in what it’s trying to be. It wants to
discuss what StarWars is to fans and the difficulties
that come with being a fan, many of them having their source with Lucas. It’s also
trying to be a comedy and it kind of undermines some of the more serious and
interesting discussion. Some of the comedy works, but a lot of it doesn’t. It
also feels very one-sided and I feel as though the movie was trying to make me
hate Lucas. It’s all a bit difficult to understand though; it’s not an easy
subject for a documentary. StarWars fandom is filled with confusion and
contradictory emotions and opinions. I think it’s important that we remember that StarWars is a multigenerational franchise. The first generation of fans
had so little StarWars for so long that they invested
themselves in the franchise. The newest generations of fans have been bombarded
with StarWars media their entire lives. For them, it’s been non-stop.

The movie ended on a hopeful note. People are willing to
give Lucas and the franchise the chance to amaze us again. When a fan’s
reaction to not liking the first of the prequels is to go and watch it twelve other times, it’s a strong sign
that he has faith in the creator and the series. Fans felt betrayed by the
prequels because they had very specific expectations and when they were giving
something different, they wanted to continue watching until they “got it”. Fans
acted as though they didn’t understand the movies, as though they were the
problem. When it finally clued in that they weren’t the problem the finger was
pointed at Lucas and the remix culture caught on. I don’t agree that Lucas has
a responsibility to the fans. I think that’s a perceived responsibility.
However, I think he does have a responsibility in preserving cultural history
and it’s up to us to ensure he acknowledges that. As for fandom, it grows and
changes hand in hand with the franchise. It’s bigger than all of us combined and
the contradictions is what fuels the growth of its fans by always having
another element to enjoy, criticize, and debate.

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Shared Universe Reviews

Welcome to my blog. I like to write about comics, books, movies and more. Feel free to comment and share you thoughts. If you'd like me to review a comic or if you're interested in an interview, send me an e-mail at mario.jf.lebel@gmail.com.